Classics/History
240G: Ancient Societies
The City and Urban Life
Course_Description / Required Books / Recommended Text / Instructor / Class Format / Special Activities / Goals and Requirements / Weekly Statements / Individualized Project / Group Presentation / Unit Exams / Additional Resources / Additional Electronic Resources
Spring 2006
TH 9:30-11:45 A.M. ,
Wallace Hall 114
Instructor: Dr. V. Wine; office WH 115A, office hours: MTWHF 9-9:15, other times by appointment and happenstance
Course description:
The Ancient City focuses
on the complex of institutions, organizations, and structures which are
associated with urban life in the ancient world. Various
evidence will be studied, including readings in translation from several
ancient Greek and Latin literary texts; tombstone and public inscriptions;
domestic painting; sculpture and other archaeological remains. Some of the
topics to be discussed include: public buildings; political organization;
commerce and industry; private life in the city; and civic religion. The basic
premise of this course is that the Graeco-Roman city
offered a special type of social organization in the Mediterranean world which
has influenced modern urban life. In the ancient world private and public
perspectives, civic and religious issues, all converge in the institution
called polis in Greek and urbs or oppidum in Latin. Ancient society cannot be fully
understood without an understanding of its urban life. Study of the ancient
city will inevitably confront students with attitudes and social structures
different from their own and will put contemporary attitudes towards the city
in a more historical and universal perspective.
Required books:
Aristophanes. Aristophanes I: Clouds, Wasps, Birds.
Trans. Meineck.
Hackett 1998.
Fuchs, trans. Horace’s Satires and Epistles. Norton 1977.
Gates. Ancient Cities. Routledge rpr. 2004.
Grant. Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii & Herculaneum. Phoenix Press paperback 2005
(out of print: see Peacock Books, www.peacockbooks.net for a copy for $9.00)
Class format:
Specific reading assignments will be given on a daily basis. Class periods will
usually be a combination of lecture and class discussion on various topics
pertaining to the ancient city. Interesting class discussions depend on
faithful completion of the reading assignments by every student. Class lectures
and discussions will be supplemented by frequent slide shows depicting art and
life in the period. Students will be assigned components which they will
present to the class. Work on the individualized projects is designed to
complement daily class discussions and readings. While daily attendance is not
recorded, persistent absence from class will inevitably affect successful
completion of course requirements. Make-up work will not be available after the
student has more than four absences.
Other required events and special
activities:
Attendance at one of the listed lectures is required and strongly encouraged
for the others, which provide opportunity for extra credit (10 points for each
of 4 lectures) when a 2-page summary and analysis paper, showing how the
presentation related to class material, is submitted. In addition, a field trip
to the Field Museum
to see the Pompeii
exhibit is arranged for March 18. These extra-class activities supplement class
lectures, discussions, and assigned readings. The 2-page statement for the one
required event will count as two weekly statements, but does not replace the
other assigned ones.
Schedule of class meetings: (Modifications may be made as necessary.)
1.Jan. 17. Introduction and Overview
19. I. Near Eastern, Egyptian, and Aegean: ch. 1
2.Jan. 24. ch. 2
26. ch. 3
3.Jan. 31. ch. 4
Feb. 2. ch. 5
4.Feb. 7. ch. 6
9. ch. 7
5.Feb.14. ch. 8 and 9
Archaeology lecture (7:30, Huff 1012), Discovering Ancient Maya Communities
Feb. 15, Archaeology lecture (12 noon, Stockdale Highlander Room), Impact of Water on Ancient Maya Communities
16. II.Greek Cities: ch. 11 and 12; urban development
6.Feb.21. ch. 13 and 14. origins of Greek planning
23. ch. 15 ; Classical period
7.Feb. 28. Wasps
Mar.2. Clouds
Mar.14. Birds
Mar. 15, Fox Classics Lecture, (7:30, Stockdale Highlander Room)
16. ch. 16.; town and country
Mar. 18. Field trip to Field Museum, Chicago, to see exhibit on Pompeii.
Mar. 20, Archaeology Lectures (12 noon, Stockdale Highlander Room), The Marble Trade in Antiquity
(7:30, 109 Morgan Hall, WIU), The Later Doric Order
Mar.21. ch. 17; the Hellenistic world
23. III.Cities of Ancient Italy and the Roman Empire; Pompeii and Herculaneum
Mar.28. ch. 21
30. ch. 18; Etruscan and Roman planning
Apr.4. ch.19
6. no class: work on individualized project. Progress report due on Apr. 11.
Apr.11. ch.20
13. Horace Satires 1.9 and others
Apr.18. Horace Epistles 7, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18
20. ch. 22; Roman Empire
Apr. 23, Eta Sigma Phi Lecture (4:00, Highlander Room), Mozart and Rome
Apr.25. no class
27. ch. 23 and 24; urban infrastructure
Archaeology lecture ( 7:30, Huff 1012), Karnak, Luxuor, Egypt
May 2. Project presentations
4. Project presentations
Final Exam: May 11 (Thursday), 6 p.m. This meeting will be used for various
activities, including oral reports, a course summary, and student evaluation.
Attendance at this session is obligatory.
Summary of goals and requirements:
Your
final grade will be an average of the following components:
Weekly
statements (150 points),
assigned class presentations (200
points), individualized project (200 points), group
presentation (100 points), first unit exam (150 points), second unit exam (150
points).
I. Weekly Statements
Every week each student will submit a personal statement on the class
discussion and reading from the previous week. These statements are informal,
short, non-research essays on discussion topics. They should go beyond
summarizing of the material to include personal analysis and commentary.
Emphasis will be on (1) integration of the student's own ideas and thoughts
with the subject matter of the course and on (2) coherent and logical
expression of these ideas. The paper should also comment on insights and
discoveries, as well as questions the student has encountered in learning and
dealing with the material. About 500 words in length (1 ½ pages), these
statements should briefly summarize the main points, offer opinion and thoughts
about the topics raised, and use specific date for support. These statements
will be graded on a five-point scale. Submission of the work on time earns the
student one point. Additional points will be earned for following content and
stylistic requirements and for personal analysis and commentary. The average of
these weekly statements will be 15% of your final grade.
II. Assigned Class Presentations
Throughout the semester students will work in pairs or groups to summarize and
comment upon the daily reading assignments. Doing the presentation as scheduled
earns the student one point. Additional points will be earned for summarizing
and for providing color commentary. Individual students can expect to do five
of these presentations. The average of these scores is 20% of the final grade.
III. Individualized Project
Each student will pursue a semester-long project which focuses on some special
aspect of ancient urban life and relates this material to life in a modern city
setting. In this project you will compare ancient Greek, Roman, and modern
American material and analyze some feature of urban life. Preparation for this
project must include library research, analysis of historical evidence, and
original work. The central product of this project can take the form of a research
paper, creative writing, artwork, or any other work which deals with material
covered in course readings or discussions. All central products must be
supplemented by a written statement (c.600 words) which contains the following
information: 1.) a summary of the project; 2.) a description of its
preparation; 3.) a list of at least five works consulted (i.e., a bibliography;
course books can be cited in the bibliography but only as
complements to at least five additional works) and an explanation of how these
works were used in the project; and 4.) an explanation of original aspects of
this project. This individualized project will be 20% of your final grade.
IV. Group presentations
On the final meeting during the examination period, groups of three or four
will present through a panel discussion their projects. The group will be
graded on oral technique, originality, and content. All participants are also
expected to submit at least a 300-word statement which summarizes their own
individual contributions to the planning and the actual presentation. These
presentations will take place at the final meeting during the examination
period, on Thursday, May 11, at 6 p.m. Students will receive a group grade for
the presentation and an individual grade based upon the information in the
statement. The average of the group and individual grades will be 10% of the
final grade.
V. Unit exams
There will be two unit tests: one at midterm and the other in the last week of
regular class.
Information about Monmouth, Illinois:
History of Warren County, Illinois.
1878.
Portrait and Biographical Album of Warren County, Illinois. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1886.
Robinson, Luther E., editor. Historical and Biographical
Record of Monmouth and Warren County, Illinois.
Chicago: Munsell, 1927.
Rankin, Jeff, editor. Born on the Prairie.
A History of Monmouth Illinois. Monmouth. 1981.
Urban, William. "The Birthplace of Wyatt Earp." Western
Illinois Regional Studies 12 (1989), 20-43.
Information about ancient Greek and Roman cities:
(Primary sources):
Aristophanes. Complete Plays (Bantam).
Barnstone, W. Greek Lyric Poetry.(Schoken).
Juvenal. Sixteen Satires (Penguin).
Lefkowitz
and Fant. Women's Life
in Greece and Rome. 2nd ed. (Johns Hopkins).
Livy. Early History of Rome. (Penguin).
Plato. Dialogues (Bantam).
Plautus. Comedies. Vol. I. (Johns Hopkins).
Thucydides. Histories. (Penguin).
(Secondary sources):
Camp, J. The Athenian Agora. London, 1986.
Carcopino.
Daily Life in Ancient Rome
Coulanges, Fustel de.
The Ancient City. (Johns Hopkins).
Descoeudres, Jean-Paul. Pompeii
Revisited.
Dinsmoor, W. B. The
Architecture of Ancient Greece.
London. 1950
Frost, Frank J. Greek Society. 5th ed. (Houghton
Mifflin).
Jones, A. H. M. The Greek City from Alexander to Justinian
Keppie, L. J. E. Colonization and Veteran
Settlement in Italy, 47-14
B.C.
Nash, E. Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London, 1968.
Owens, E. J. The City in the Greek and Roman World (Routledge).
Ramage, Nancy H. And Andrew Ramage. Roman Art . 2nd ed.
(Prentice Hall).
Robinson, D. M. Architecture of Pompeii.
Scientific American. Special
Issue on Cities, 1994.
Tomlinson, Richard. From Mycenae
to Constantinople (Routledge).
Travlos, J. Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens. London, 1971.
Wycherley, R. E. The Stones of Athens. Princeton,
1978.
Videos and CD-ROM:
"Rome and Pompeii"
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"
"In the Shadow of Vesuvius"
Scientific American CD ROM on Ancient Cities
Additional Electronic
Resources:
Student
summaries of Pompeii Revisited
A Satire on the
City of Naperville, Illinois, by Brad Mandeville (pace Juvenal)